Everex (EVX) Review: Blockchain Powered Remittance Project

Everex (EVX) is an interesting blockchain project that has focused its attention on remittances and microfinance for Small and Medium Enterprises.

The project got its start in 2016 and has been growing their footprint across the South East Asia region. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Everex completed a sizable ICO back in 2017 that saw them issue their EVX utility token.

However, can Everex really compete with some of the larger remittance blockchain projects?

In this Everex review, I will attempt to answer that completing a deep-dive on the project, its technology road-map and development. I will also take a look at the long term use cases and adoption potential for EVX tokens.

What is Everex?

As mentioned above, Everex is a blockchain project dealing with cross border payments, currency conversion, and remittances. It began as another project meant to bank the unbanked and in 2016 conducted a successful pilot which proved the viability of their remittance system, allowing hundreds of Burmese migrant workers to transfer a total of 850,000 THB from Thailand back home to Myanmar.

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

Since that initial pilot the project has expanded its mission and is currently focused on small and medium-sized businesses, but still remains committed to providing services for individuals as well. Real-time settlements on cross border transactions and security from the blockchain are two of the strengths of the project.

Everex functions on the Ethereum blockchain and works by creating various stablecoins pegged to the value of corresponding fiat currencies. This allows individuals and SME’s to easily and quickly transfer money domestically and around the globe.

According to Everex founder Alexi Lane:

the platform can digitize any asset on the Ethereum blockchain to facilitate peer to peer global remittance, currency exchange, and capital markets

Everex Use Cases

Everex says it is going to improve global remittances, which it says is currently subject to a number of issues. These issues include long delays for receivers, high fees, and long queues at currency exchange sites. The Everex network will allow users to avoid all of these problems effortlessly.

One group that has been especially prone to the negative impact of the current global remittance system are migrant workers and expatriates. Both groups pay exorbitant fees and wait excessively long to receive funds from overseas. These are the individuals that can benefit most from the Everex network.

Expats and migrant workers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from an improved global remittance system. SME’s will benefit as they receive invoice payments almost instantaneously. And foreign exchange brokers will see deposits and withdrawals processed more quickly with lower fees.

Everex at Work

Anyone can walk into a bank or currency exchange center to exchange cash for an equivalent amount of stable “e-cash”. Everex will be able to issue eUSD, eEUR, eJPY and digital versions of any fiat currency. Each unit will be exchangeable on a 1:1 basis for fiat currency. So 1 eUSD=1 USD.

Businesses can also access the Everex network to create their own currency exchange and transfers.

In either case, the digital equivalents will be immediately available and can be transferred to any location in the world immediately as well. Because wallets can be installed on any PC or smartphone users can access their funds even when they’re on the go.

Everex will also be able to offer microloans, with an artificial intelligence engine determining credit risk based on the history of the individual user.

Because the e-currencies are only created as fiat currency is deposited and burned when the fiat currency is withdrawn, there is never a question of whether or not there is enough fiat currency being held to cover the e-currency. All deposited funds are held in a publically transparent third-party escrow account.

The basis of the functionality is a global network of partners who will function as exchange points, allowing users to switch between fiat and cryptocurrency at will. Everex believes this system will forever change the global remittance system.

The Everex Wallet

One of the first products released by Everex was an Everex wallet. It was released in 2016 and is a mobile wallet available for Android, with an iOS version coming soon. There is also a web-based exchange service accessible at Everex.cash.

Everex has also created other Ethereum platforms and applications made available for anyone to use. This includes an Ethereum token viewer at Ethplorer.io and an app that provides blockchain record storage, proof of existence and aeon links called Chainy.

The initial distribution of the wallet was for customers located in Thailand, but since then the wallet has been translated and is available globally.

Everex Features

Everex comes with a number of core features, some of which we’ve already touched on above. The core features of the network are as follows:

• Quick Deposits: Users are able to deposit fiat and convert to stablecoins with the click of a button.
• Quick Withdrawals: Users can cash out funds in their local currency at any participating vendors worldwide. Everex will also make withdrawals available at currency exchanges and ATMs globally.
• Digital Escrow: Payments can be sent with a one-time PIN. Receivers can only unlock the funds when the sender provides them with the PIN.
• Transfers: Money can be sent anywhere, even to your own bank account, instantly.
• International Payments: Users can pay vendors or service providers anywhere in the world, instantly, with the click of a button.

Why Everex is Needed

The Everex platform is useful to individuals, small and medium business, and even larger corporations. Anyone who can benefit from instant, low-cost international remittances can benefit from Everex. The founders and developers at Everex have created the platform to be especially useful to the following four groups:

• Underbanked and Un-Banked Individuals: There are over 2 billion people in the world who lack a basic bank account. Some are unable to get an account because they lack personal identification, some are too far physically from a financial institution, and others don’t have the necessary communications infrastructure in their area. Everex is working to provide banking services, remittances, microfinancing, and microcredit services to this group of individuals.
• Migrant Workers: There are tens of millions of migrant workers in the world, and they can all benefit from cheap, fast, easy remittances back to their home countries.
• Expatriates and Tourists: Those who live and travel in foreign countries are plagued by high exchange fees when converting their home fiat to local fiat currencies. By using Everex they can convert their home currency to digital currency and withdraw it with minimal fees anywhere in the world.
• NGO’s and Aid Organizations: Everex can make it easy for organizations providing aid services to move funds into and out of developing countries, as well as making such transactions publically viewable and auditable.

Everex Team & Advisors

The Everex team is led by co-founder and CEO Alexi Lane who is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 years in the financial services, payments and capital services markets. He is a graduate of the University of Tennesse and has worked at companies including Morgan Stanley and Wealth Strategies group.

A second co-founder, Alexander Kakunov, serves as the CTO of Everex. He has over 15 years of experience in architecting enterprise-level software and has three years of experience building blockchain based apps. It is interesting to note though that Alexander's profile has been removed from the project's homepage while his linkedin still lists his position.

There are also two advisors at the Everex project and these are Kirill Gourov and Faisal Khan. Kirill is a portfolio manager and Head of Research at Full Node Capital and has been quite active in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. He has advised a number startups and financial institutions in the space.

Faisal has a slightly different background in that he is a talkshow host and Quora contributor. Although, he has consulted for a number of other projects in the banking and cross-border payment processing space.

The EVX Token

Everex held their ICO in August 2017, raising 26.7 million as they sold EVX tokens at $2.10 each. There is a total supply of 25 million EVX tokens and a circulating supply of 22.4 million tokens. The total supply of coins is fixed so you will not see any coin inflation.

After the ICO the price of EVX fell, bouncing from as low as $1 to $1.85 until the December 2017 rally took it to an all-time high of $7.36 on January 8, 2018. The coin fell along with the broader market throughout 2018, reaching a low of $0.179642 on December 14, 2018.

The token bounced and spent the first quarter of 2019 trading between $0.20 to $0.25 and then spiked higher on March 25 and 26 following news that it had received approval to begin onboarding clients in the U.S. That pump took the token from $0.30 on March 25 to a current price of $0.983440 on April 9, 2019.

As an ERC-20 token EVX can be stored in any ERC-20 compatible wallet such as Metamask and MyEtherWallet. However, if you wanted to unlock all the features of the Everex network you will need to use the native Everex wallet.

If you want to buy EVX tokens Binance has the largest trading volume with over 90% of the market share. There are a handful of other exchanges offering the token, including BX Thailand, Huobi Global, and HitBTC.

Although there is healthy liquidity for EVX, its reliance on the volume of one exchange could be an issue at some point (which many traders will have to consider). The token is also quite volatile when compared to other coins with similar market caps.

Everex Community & Marketing

When analyzing the potential of a project to grow in the medium to long term, it is important to assess the size and enthusiasm of its community. A broad and engaged community of supporters can help spread awareness for the project and increase EVX use.

Everex has standard social accounts on both Facebook and Twitter. They have over 7k likes on the former and 17k followers on the latter. They do appear to be quite active on these platforms and regularly update their followers on the latest developments / news events.

On top of this, the project has an active Telegram channel with just over 5k members. This will allow members to engage in a more spirited debate around the project. Finally, they have also recently launched an official blog where they post certain updates relevant to the community.

Everex vs. Ripple

While both Everex and Ripple (XRP) are payment solutions, they differ in their focus enough that they could be considered complementary rather than competitors.

Where Everex is working on increasing financial inclusion primarily for individuals and SME’s, Ripple is focused on business-to-business transactions and deals mostly with big banks as its clients. Then there is the stablecoin technology, which is a mainstay of the Everex platform but doesn’t exist within Ripple’s technology.

Conclusion

Everex has a long history for a blockchain project and with their recent approval to add U.S. customers appears to be on the right track. They have also recently received approval from Thailand and Myanmar to deploy their technology for international remittances between the two countries.

Of course, many who have invested in this project are hoping that this added adoption can give a boost to the price of EVX. Indeed, if one is to look at the massive increase in trading volume recently as well as the slight uptick in price, market pessimism appears to have turned a corner.

So, should you consider EVX?

Well, I would definitely encourage you to do your own research (DYOR) but the project does seem to be making strong headway. There is definitely a need for affordable remittance solutions and Everex is providing a solid alternative.

If you want to keep up to date with the latest from the project, be sure to keep an eye on their blog.